A Distinguished Scholar in North American History at McGill University living in Jerusalem, Gil Troy is an award-winning American presidential historian and a leading Zionist activist. The author of nine works on US history, his seven books on Zionism include the classic anthology, The Zionist Ideas. He recently published To Resist the Academic Intifada: Letters to My Students on Defending the Zionist Dream, and – with the JPPI – The Essential Guide to October 7 and its Aftermath: Facts, Figures, History, now available in French and Hebrew. He has been included in Algemeiner’s J-100, one of the top 100 people "positively influencing Jewish life."
Fellows

Yaakov Katz
Bio
Yaakov Katz is an Israeli-American author and journalist. Between 2016 and 2023, Yaakov was editor-in-chief of The Jerusalem Post where he continues to write a popular weekly column.
He is the author of three books - “Shadow Strike – Inside Israel’s Secret Mission to Eliminate Syrian Nuclear Power”, “Weapon Wizards - How Israel Became a High-Tech Military Superpower” and “Israel vs. Iran: The Shadow War”.
Shadow Strike was recently adapted into a docudrama by Reshet Media and his books have been published in a number of languages including English, Hebrew, Czech, Polish, Japanese and Mandarin.
His next book – tentatively titled “Precision Strike” – is scheduled for publication by St. Martin’s Press in the Spring of 2025.
Yaakov served for close to a decade as the paper's military reporter and defense analyst and was a lecturer at Harvard University where he taught an advanced course in journalism. He also served as Israel correspondent for Jane’s Defence Weekly.
Prior to taking up the role of editor-in-chief, Yaakov served for two years as a senior policy adviser to Naftali Bennett during his tenure as Israel’s Minister of Economy and Minister of Diaspora Affairs.
In 2013, Yaakov was one of 12 international fellows to spend a year at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University.
Originally from Chicago, Yaakov has a law degree from Bar Ilan University.
Focus Areas and Research
Articles by Yaakov Katz

Dr. Dov Maimon
Senior Fellow
Bio
Senior Fellow at JPPI, Dov Maimon leads the "Grand Strategy toward Islam" project, the "Israel-Diaspora New Paradigm" project and the Institute's activities in Europe.
Among his action-oriented work, he is a member of the Advisory Committee for Improving access to Ultra-Orthodox to Higher Education chaired by Professor Manuel Trajtenberg. He is also the author of the Action Plan for bringing the developing mass migration of French Jews to Israel. Commissioned by governmental agencies, the plan was adopted by the Israeli Cabinet on June 22nd 2014.
Born in Paris, he earned a B.Sc. from the Technion (Haifa, Israel), a MBA from Insead (Fontainebleau, France), a M.A in Religious Anthropology and a Ph.D. in Islamic and Medieval Studies from the Sorbonne University. He is a laureate of the prestigious prize "Grand Prix du chancelier des universites 2005" awarded to the best French PhD work in Literature and Human Sciences. He is also a graduat of the Mandel School of Educational Leadership. Formerly an High-Tech industry entrepreneur, Dov is teaching at the School of Business Administration of the Ben Gurion University.
Focus Areas and Research
Articles by Dr. Dov Maimon

Retired Justice Elyakim Rubinstein
Bio
Served as Vice President of Israel’s Supreme Court, Attorney General, and Government Secretary, and participated in peace negotiations with Israel’s neighbors. After retirement, Rubinstein was appointed Associate Professor in the parallel track of the Department of Political Science and the Federman School of Public Policy and Government at the Hebrew University. Served, and continues to serve, as chair and member of several public bodies (including the Public Committee on IDF Orphans, the Council for Combating Racism in the Ministry of Justice, the Public Defender's Committee) and civil society organizations (for example, the Council for the Preservation of Historic Sites (Chair), Kav Mashve – Developing Employment Leadership in Israeli Arab Society, and Round-Up). Rubinstein is a Co-Chair of JPPI’s Thin Constitution project.
Focus Areas and Research
Articles by Retired Justice Elyakim Rubinstein

Tamar Ish Shalom
Bio
Tamar Ish Shalom, formerly the chief anchor of Channel 10 (later Channel 13) News for 11 years and more recently the host of Channel 13’s weekend news edition, has won several prestigious awards, including the B’nai B’rith Journalism Award for her documentary series on the evolving face of American Jewry and the Givat Haviva Award for advancing shared society between Jews and Arabs in Israel. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Jewish philosophy and a master’s degree in religious studies.
Tamar hosts a podcast on the topic of the impact of the October 7th events and the ongoing war on the world’s largest Jewish community outside Israel—the Jewish community of the United States.
Focus Areas and Research
Articles by Tamar Ish Shalom

Prof. Yonathan Givati
Bio
We are happy to announce that Prof. Yehonatan Givati has joined the Institute as a senior fellow. Givati completed both his PhD in economics and his Doctorate in law (SJD) at Harvard and is a professor of law at Hebrew University. He is the founding director of the Aumann-Fischer Center for Law, Economics, and Public Policy at Hebrew University and a member of the Center for the Study of Rationality, also at Hebrew University. Givati will head JPPI’s “Israel-Diaspora Index” project.
Focus Areas and Research

Dr. Yehuda Yifrah
Bio
Investigative journalist, legal commentator for the Israeli newspaper Makor Rishon, and a lawyer specializing in commercial and civil litigation at the Shalem & Kerem law firm. Yifrah holds bachelor’s degrees in law and education, and master’s and doctoral degrees in Jewish philosophy.
Focus Areas and Research

Shlomit Mali
Bio
Shlomit Mali is CEO of the AMI - the coordinating body for relations between Israelis and Diaspora Jewry. She is a serial entrepreneur specializing in project leadership an partnership development. Mali was part of the founding team of the Center for Humanities Studies, managed the teacher training department at the National Library, and taught Talmud in various frameworks (SAR – New York; Keshet – Jerusalem; Yad Laisha and others). She holds a master's degree from the Ravivim program at Hebrew University.
Focus Areas and Research

Prof. Reuven Y. Hazan
Bio
Prof. Reuven Y. Hazan is a professor in and former chair of the Department of Political Science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he is the first to hold the Chair in Israeli Democracy and Politics. He has taught about Israeli government and comparative politics for almost thirty years, both at the Hebrew University and at American universities such as Columbia, Emory, Harvard and Yale. His research and publications focus on the neo-institutional cornerstones of comparative politics: political parties and party systems, elections and electoral systems, and legislative studies. He served on the editorial board of leading political science journals (International Political Science Review, Party Politics, Journal of Legislative Studies) and on the executive committee of the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR).
He has written and edited several books, special issues of journals, and dozens of book chapters and articles, covering both Israeli government and politics as well as more general theoretical and comparative political science scholarship. Hazan's most recent publications are as lead editor of the Oxford Handbook on Israeli Politics and Society and co-author of Politics and Government in Israel. He has served on political reform commissions appointed in Israel and in other countries, he has advised Israeli political parties and the speaker of the Israeli parliament, worked as a senior research fellow at Israel's top political think tanks, and his analysis of Israeli politics appears often in media outlets across the world (such as the New York Times and CNN).
Focus Areas and Research

Noa Israeli
Research Fellow
Bio
Noa Israeli is the coordinator of the academic course "Israeli Identity: Divided We Stand." She is a PhD student at the School of Jewish Studies at Tel Aviv University, and a graduate of the Israel Democracy Institute's Human Rights and Judaism Program. Israeli is the Director of the Scholarships Program for Outstanding Teaching Students at Tel Aviv University, and lecturer in the Regav program at the Kibbutzim Seminar. She lives in Tel Aviv and is the mother of two daughters.
Focus Areas and Research

Eliran Carsenti
Bio
Eliran Carsenti is JPPI's digital assets manager and editor of the Institute's website. Over the last decade, he has worked as a reporter, editor, and manager at several prominent media organizations. He has a bachelor's degree in economics and communications from Ariel University, a master's degree in law from Bar Ilan University, and he is a graduate of a campaign management program at the New-Media college.
Articles by Eliran Carsenti

Dr. Haim Zicherman
Bio
Dr. Haim Zicherman, a senior lecturer at the Ono Academic College (OAC), is an expert in constitutional and property law and also researches the ultra-Orthodox society.
His book Black Blue-White (Yedioth Books, 2014) takes a broad-minded approach to understanding the ultra-Orthodox society in Israel. Until last year, Zicherman managed the ultra-Orthodox campuses of the OAC, where thousands of Haredi students – male and female – study. In recent years, Zicherman has coordinated the development and management of the "Israeli Identity" course available to all undergraduate students in Israel.
Focus Areas and Research
Articles by Dr. Haim Zicherman

Shmuel Rosner
Senior Fellow
Bio
Shmuel Rosner is a researcher, editor and columnist. He is the editor of the "THE MADAD" project, for politics, society, identity and culture in Israel and serves as a television commentator for Kan News.
Rosner was the editor-in-chief of the non-fiction books in Kinneret-Zamora-Dvir from 2009 to 2021. He was a columnist for the New York Times newspaper from 2012 to 202. He was the head of the news department at Haaretz (1996 to 2008). He is a sought-after lecturer on Israeli politics, security, and policy; the state of the Jewish people; American history, politics, and policy.
Focus Areas and Research
Articles by Shmuel Rosner

Moshe Cohen
Bio
Moshe Cohen heads JPPI's media and communications arm. He is an attorney and strategic communications consultant. Cohen served for 16 years as the head of the Information and Communications Department at the Ministry of Justice, which includes the Attorney General's Office and the State Attorney's Office.
Prior to that, Cohen worked in the press, in various capacities: head of the editorial staff of the Israeli daily newspaper Maariv, where he also served as justice reporter; before that he was a Channel One reporter for (the Broadcasting Authority) covering the Arab world, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip.
Adv. Cohen studied law at the Hebrew University and specialized as a criminal prosecutor in the Jerusalem District Attorney's Office. He also holds an additional degree in criminology, with honors, from the Hebrew University, and is a certified mediator. Cohen is an alumnus of the Israeli Center for Management's Advanced Management Program and the Fellows Program for the senior faculty of the National Midrasha at the Civil Service Commission.

Rivka Ravitz
Senior Fellow
Bio
Rivka Ravitz studied business administration and computer science and received her MBA in Information Systems. She is currently working on a doctorate in public policy at the University of Haifa. Her research at JPPI addresses the empowerment of Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) women in the labor market. Ravitz served as Chief of Staff to the 10th President of the State of Israel, Mr. Reuven (Ruvi) Rivlin. She is a member of Israel’s Haredi community and lectures on various topics.
Focus Areas and Research
Articles by Rivka Ravitz

Dr. Nadia Beider
Bio
Nadia Beider holds a PhD in Contemporary Jewry from the Hebrew University, where she was a Mandel Scholion doctoral fellow. She is currently a Rothschild Foundation Hanadiv Europe postdoctoral fellow at University College London. She teaches Jewish Education at the Hebrew University and has worked as a demographer at the Claims Conference.
Focus Areas and Research
Articles by Dr. Nadia Beider

Prof. Ariel Bendor
Bio
Ariel L. Bendor is Frank Church Professor of Legal Research at the Faculty of Law and Dean of School of Graduate Studies, Bar-Ilan University. He holds an LL.B. (cum laude) and an LL.D. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He has been a professor or visiting scholar at Yale, Osgood Hall, and Maryland law schools. He served as a member of the appointments committee of Bar-Ilan University and as chairman of the Israeli Association of Public Law. He serves as the head of the Center for Media and the Law and of the publishing house of the Faculty of Law. Before joining Bar-Ilan in 2008, he was on the faculty at the University of Haifa (1992-2008), where he served as Dean of Law, Dean of Students, and member of the Board of Directives at the University of Haifa. He served in a number of public committees, including the Advisory Committee for Examination of Israel's Policy of Immigration, a team to examine the policy of issuing gag orders, and the search committee for the State Attorney. His main expertise includes constitutional law, administrative law, and substantive and procedural criminal law. He has written three scholarly books and about 80 academic articles published in law reviews and books in Israel and abroad. He has edited two books as well as the Hebrew University Law Review and the University of Haifa Law & Government Journal, and was the Editor in Chief of the University of Haifa Press.
Focus Areas and Research

Prof. Michal Bar-Asher Siegal
Bio
Prof. Michal Bar-Asher Siegal is a scholar of rabbinic Judaism. Her work focuses on aspects of Jewish-Christian interactions in the ancient world, and compares early Christian and rabbinic sources. She is a faculty member at the Goldstein-Goren Department of Jewish Thought, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, and she was an elected member of the Israel Young Academy of Sciences. She was the Horace Goldsmith Visiting Professor in Judaic Studies at Yale University and the Gruss Visiting Associate Professor in Talmudic Civil Law Harvard Law School. Her first book is Early Christian Monastic Literature and the Babylonian Talmud (Cambridge University Press, 2013; winner of the 2014 Manfred Lautenschlaeger Award). Her second book is Jewish-Christian Dialogues on Scripture in Late Antiquity: Heretic Narratives of the Babylonian Talmud (Cambridge University Press, 2019; finalist, National Jewish Book Award, 2019).
Focus Areas and Research
Articles by Prof. Michal Bar-Asher Siegal

Prof. Yaffa Zilbershats
Bio
Professor of law specializing in international law, constitutional law, human rights and migration law, served as Dean of the Faculty of Law at Bar-Ilan University, and Vice President of the university. She has served on several public committees in Israel, including the Committee to Appoint a Deputy Attorney General, the Committee for Preparation of Citizenship Legislation, the Rubinstein Policy Review Committee for Immigration to the State of Israel, and the Neeman Committee for Completing a Draft Constitution for Israel. From 2015 to 2021, Prof. Zilbershats chaired the Planning and Budgeting Committee at the Council for Higher Education (CHE), where she led the implementation of the Six-Year Plan for Higher Education in Israel. She has served as a member of the International Board of the Weizmann Institute of Science since 2022, and as of 2023, as the Academic Chair of Yeshiva University in Israel.
Focus Areas and Research

Noah Slepkov
Chief Technology Officer
Bio
Noah Slepkov is a fellow and chief technology officer at JPPI and he is lead developer and managing partner at theMadad.com.
At JPPI he is focused on public opinion surveys and big data research.
Previously he served as Foreign Policy and Strategic Advisor to Member of Knesset Dr. Einat Wilf and worked in the Israeli Knesset as a Parliamentary Assistant.
Noah holds an Honors BA in Jewish Studies from York University and an MA in Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution from the Lauder School of Government at the IDC Herzliya. He also studied Economics at the University of Toronto and Political Science at the University of Western Ontario.
Prior to immigrating to Israel from Canada in 2008, Noah worked on campuses across Canada organizing Jewish student events and leading Israel advocacy efforts.
Focus Areas and Research
Articles by Noah Slepkov

Jason Pearlman
Bio
Jason is the JPPI spokesperson for foreign media. As a foreign media liaison and speechwriter, Jason has experience working with the Office of the President of Israel under both President Isaac Herzog and former president Reuven Rivlin, former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett as Education Minister and Minister for Diaspora Affairs, former Justice Minister Gideon Saar, Mayor of Jerusalem Moshe Lion, and others.
He has over 20 years of experience working with the international media based in Israel and has helped manage the coverage for some of the largest scale events to have taken place in the country; including the visits of two Popes, six visits of US Presidents and Vice Presidents, dozens of other heads of state, as well as for the 75th Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz held at Yad Vashem in 2019. He has also consulted for major international brands including Facebook and Mars.
Jason holds a BA in Politics and Social Policy from Brunel University. Originally from Sunderland in the North-East of England, he lives in Modi’in with his three sons.

Dr. Elad Gil
Bio
Senior Fellow and Head of Research at the Tachlith Institute for Israeli Policy. He holds a doctorate (S.J.D.) in law from Duke University, a bachelor's degree in law and a master's degree in business administration from the Hebrew University, as well as a master’s degree in law from American University in Washington, which he attended as the recipient of a Fulbright scholarship. In addition to his position at the Tachlith Institute, Dr. Gil serves as a researcher at Hebrew University’s Federmann Cybersecurity Research Center, lecturer at the Radzyner School of Law at Reichman University, and visiting researcher in Duke University’s Innovation and Entrepreneurship program. His research interests include constitutional and administrative law, theory of separation of government branches, and law and technology. In 2023, he served as a special adviser to the negotiation management team regarding the judicial reform on behalf of Beit HaNassi (the President's Residence).
Focus Areas and Research

Dr. Ghila Amati
Bio
Ghila Amati, originally from Italy and now residing in Jerusalem, earned her PhD from the University of Oxford’s Department of Theology and Religion. She currently serves as a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Weisfeld Family Foundation Ma'ayan Center for Jewish Philosophy and Sustainability at Bar-Ilan University and as a Research Fellow at the Jewish People Policy Institute (JPPI).
Previously, Ghila was a Fellow in the Judaism and Human Rights Program at the Israel Democracy Institute in Jerusalem. Her scholarly work has been featured in prestigious journals, including Harvard Theological Review, Prooftexts, Religions, and the Journal of Jewish Thought and Philosophy. At JPPI, Ghila leads the project The Future of Interfaith Dialogue in the Wake of October 7 and contributes to the Data Center initiative.
Photo: Naama Stern, Makor Rishon.
Articles by Dr. Ghila Amati

Dr. Nurit Cohen
Bio
Dr. Nurit Cohen has joined JPPI as part of the "Jewish Peoplehood" project team. Dr. Cohen is a historian and curator of historical exhibitions. Her book, based on her doctoral thesis, Jewish Refugees in the War of Independence won the Yitzhak Sadeh Prize for Military Literature. In the past, she has held key positions in several major media organizations.
Focus Areas and Research

Noam Gitin
Bio
Noam Gitin, the content manager of AMI Directorate, has over 15 years of experience in informal Jewish education. She previously worked at Yad Vashem and headed the International Programs and Young Leadership Department at its International School for Holocaust Studies. Gitin holds a master's degree in Jewish History and Contemporary Jewry from Hebrew University. She is married, has two daughters, and resides in Jerusalem.

Retired Judge Raanan Giladi
Bio
A Jewish People Policy Institute senior fellow, who is part of the management team of the Thin Constitution project. Giladi has served as a magistrate court judge in Israel's Southern District. He was a legal assistant to the late Supreme Court Deputy President Eliahu Mazza, and an intern of former Supreme Court Deputy President Shlomo Levin.
Giladi was in charge of the professional team of the State's Committee of Inquiry on the Treatment of the Evacuees from the 2005 Gaza Disengagement. He has also served as a Senior Manager of Administrative Law Division in the National Public Defender's Office; a lawyer in the High Court of Justice (Bagatz) Department in the Office of the Attorney General; the Executive Director of the Clinical Law Programs at Tel Aviv University; and a Board Member at the Bar Association's Lawyers Training Institute. He has published several articles on the interface between public law and criminal law.
Focus Areas and Research

Shira Tzachi
Bio
Shira Tsachi is an educator, group facilitator, and social entrepreneur. She holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in history and geography from Hebrew University, and is a doctoral student in Jewish philosophy at Bar-Ilan University.
Over the past decade, Shira has been involved in young leadership development and in the administration of a unique beit midrash (study framework) at Ein Prat: The Academy for Leadership, where she also served as Deputy CEO for Research, Development, and Learning.
Shira was one of the last students of the late Israel Prize laureate Prof. Eliezer Schweid, and is deeply engaged with his thought and pedagogical legacy. She teaches and lectures on Jewish history and Zionist thought in a variety of educational settings.
She is a former chair of Mirkam – Mixed Communities Network – and is currently a member of the Open University Council.
Focus Areas and Research
Articles by Shira Tzachi

Dr. Robert Neufeld
Bio
Dr. Robert Neufeld is an expert in international law, International Humanitarian law, Security law, Military law and Emergency law. Robert served in numerous positions in the IDF's Military Advocate General Corps and the Military Ombudsman, including Commander of the IDF’s School of Military Law, Head of the Operational Law Branch in the IDF International Law Department, Legal Advisor to the Israel Air Force, Israel Navy and IDF Home Front Command, Chief Regional Military Prosecutor, Judge Advocate for the Israel Air Force, Legal Advisor to the Intelligence Directorate and Legal Advisor to the Technology and Logistics Directorate. Today, Robert serves as a legal consultant in the fields of emergency law, counter terrorism, combating BDS and antisemitism. In 2022, Robert served as an expert on behalf of the Council of Europe to the Ukraine Parliament and the Supreme Court on improving the remote hearings legal framework and practice under martial law or state of emergency in Ukraine in line with Human Rights standards and principles.
Robert holds an LLB as well as LLM (Magna cum Laude) from Tel Aviv University, and a PhD from the University of Haifa. His PhD work - "The Impact of political motives on the legality of actions in current warfare under International Humanitarian Law" has examined the adaptability of International Humanitarian Law to modern warfare, current military thought and military doctrines, and the growing political aspects of the use of force. His Post-Doc research, together with Prof. Eli Salzberger, has examined the regulatory framework of the Israeli emergency laws.
Focus Areas and Research
Articles by Dr. Robert Neufeld

Yisrael Klitsner
Bio
Yisrael Klitsner held the role of Diaspora Affairs Advisor to then Prime Minister of Israel, Naftali Bennett. Prior to his government role, Yisrael spent six years contributing to AIPAC-AIEF, where he served as the Director of Strategic Engagement. Yisrael, on full scholarship, was studying public policy at Carnegie Mellon University when October 7 hit and he decided to move back to Israel and then spent many months in reserve duty. Yisrael hold a BA from Queens College. He is married and has four children.
Articles by Yisrael Klitsner

Eyal Yinon
Bio
Jurist. Served as Legal Adviser to the Knesset and as Knesset Secretary. Yinon holds a bachelor's degree in law from Tel Aviv University and a master’s degree in public policy from the Hebrew University.
Focus Areas and Research

Maya Haser
Bio
Maya Haser has been a professional graphic designer for nearly 20 years. She has worked in the advertising industry and was a digital designer in Israel's Ministry of Welfare and Social Affairs. A graduate of the Avni Institute of Art and Design, Maya specializes in both print and digital graphic design.

Dr. David Barak Gorodetsky
Bio
Dr. David Barak-Gorodetsky is the head of the Elizabeth and Tony Comper Interdisciplinary Center for the Study of Antisemitism and Racism, and Director of the Ruderman Program for American-Jewish Studies at the University of Haifa. He recently returned to Israel after two years as a visiting scholar at the University of Chicago's Divinity School. Prior to that, he was a researcher at the Ben-Gurion Institute for the Study of Israel and Zionism and served as a rabbi in the Ramat HaNegev Regional Council. His research focuses on the history of religious movements in American Judaism, Israel-Diaspora relations, issues of religion and state, and political polarization. He resides in Kfar Gideon, a mixed Haredi-secular community.
Focus Areas and Research

Dr. Ofer Zalzberg
Bio
Dr. Ofer Zalzberg is Director of the Middle East Program at the Herbert C. Kelman Institute for Conflict Transformation. Over the last 20 years, he has been a consultant for several international and Israeli organizations, including the S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace, the International Crisis Group, Oxford Research Group, the Office of the President of Israel, and the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute. He publishes extensively in international and Middle Eastern mainstream media. He co-founded and chaired diverse societal initiatives including Kumu! – For Jewish Renewal of the Public Sphere and the Young Israeli Forum for Cooperation.
His published academic work focuses on conflict arenas characterized by colliding worldviews, notably conflict within and among heterogeneous societies – religious and secular, liberal and non-liberal. His PhD dissertation in Conflict Studies from Trinity College Dublin focused on how conflict resolution addresses value-based non-negotiability.

Prof. Gil Troy
Bio
Focus Areas and Research
Articles by Prof. Gil Troy

Bezalel Goldman
Bio
Bezalel Goldman is the former CFO and Information Systems Manager of Torah Mitzion and has served as Deputy CEO of "Yesodot" and as a business banker at Bank Mizrahi-Tefahot. Bezalel holds a bachelor's degree in Management and Psychology from the Open University. He is married, a father of four, and lives in Efrat.

Dr. John Ruskay
Senior Fellow
Bio
John S. Ruskay came to UJA-Federation in 1993 and held several positions before being appointed Executive Vice President and CEO in October 1999, serving in this role until July 2014. After graduating from the University of Pittsburgh in 1968, Dr. Ruskay earned his M.A. and Ph.D. in political science at Columbia University. He served as Educational Director of the 92nd Street Y from 1980 to 1985, and Vice Chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America from 1985 to 1993.
Dr. Ruskay has written extensively and speaks nationally on how the American Jewish community can most effectively respond to the challenges and opportunities of living in an open society; the critical role of Jewish philanthropy; and the central role of community. He has served as a senior consultant to the Wexner Foundation and The Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies, and has chaired the Publication Committee of the Journal of Jewish Communal Service and the Professional Advisory Committee of the Hornstein Jewish Professional Leadership Program.
Dr. Ruskay has received numerous honors, including the Bernard Reisman Award for Professional Excellence from Brandeis University's Hornstein Program, the Mandelkorn Distinguished Service Award from the Jewish Communal Service Association of North America, and honorary doctorates from the Jewish Theological Seminary (2011), Hebrew Union College (2103), and Yeshiva University (2014).
The Ruskay Institute for Jewish Professional Leadership is being established to provide in-service professional enrichment for the next generation of communal leaders.
Dr. Ruskay is married to Robin Bernstein; together they have five children and seven grandchildren.
Focus Areas and Research
Articles by Dr. John Ruskay

Prof. Keren Weinshall-Margel
Bio
Edward Silver Professor of Civil Procedure at Hebrew University. Prof. Weinshall-Margel was Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Law at Hebrew University until 2021, and a member of the Israel Young Academy of Sciences and Humanities. She is a researcher in the field of empirical law in Israel, and a former Founding Director of the Israeli Judicial Authority.
Focus Areas and Research

Samuel J. Hyde
Bio
Samuel J. Hyde is a South African-Israeli writer and researcher. He began his career studying the rise of Nazism at the Holocaust and Genocide Center and is currently a fellow at the Jewish People Policy Institute. Over the years, he has worked in various research institutes such as the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education, the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, and UN Watch, and edited Dr. Einat Wilf's We Should All Be Zionists.
Focus Areas and Research
Articles by Samuel J. Hyde

Jonathan Pihotka
Bio
Jonathan holds a BA in film and television from Tel Aviv University. He worked as a magazine reporter for News 10 for several years, after which he specialized in directing and producing commercial and documentary videos in a variety of styles. His collaboration with JPPI includes video content creation and production of online courses.

Dr. Shlomo Fischer
Senior Fellow
Bio
Dr. Shlomo Fischer teaches sociology in the School of Education at Hebrew University and at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.He is also currently a research fellow at the Van Leer Institute. His research interests include the nexus of religion, politics and class in Israel, contemporary religion and the sociology of the Jewish people. He has published extensively on radical religious Zionism and the West Bank settlers as well as on the Shas movement.
Fischer has worked in the field of education for the past 25 years. In the past 10 years he has worked in the field of religion, democracy and tolerance. He has edited (together with Adam Seligman) The Burden of Tolerance: Religious Traditions and the Challenge of Pluralism (Hebrew; HaKibbutz Hameuchad and the Van Leer Institute, 2007) which addresses these issues. From 1996-2007 he was the founder and Executive Director of Yesodot – Center for Torah and Democracy which works to advance education for democracy in the State-Religious school sector in Israel and was also one of the founders and is on the Board of the International Summer School for Religion and Public Life which is based in Boston, Mass. He is a graduate of the Mandel School for Educational Leadership in Jerusalem.
Focus Areas and Research
Articles by Dr. Shlomo Fischer

Dr. Rachel Fish
Bio
Rachel Fish is the co-founder of Boundless, a think-action tank partnering with community leaders to revitalize Israel education and take bold collective action to combat Jew-hatred.
Dr. Fish has 20 years of academic experience in the fields of Israeli history, Zionist thought, and Middle Eastern Studies. Currently, Dr. Fish holds a position of Visiting Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership at George Washington University’s Graduate School.
She was the Founding Executive Director of the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism, served as Senior Adviser and Resident Scholar of Jewish/Israel Philanthropy at the Paul E. Singer Foundation, and was Executive Director at the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies at Brandeis University.
Focus Areas and Research
Articles by Dr. Rachel Fish

Dr. Shalom Salomon Wald
Senior Fellow
Bio
S.Wald was born in 1936 in Milan, Italy. He grew up in Basel, Switzerland where he studied social sciences, history, and history of religions, graduating in 1962 as Ph.D. In 1964 he joined the Paris-based OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) where he stayed until his retirement in 2001. His career spanned education, technological innovation, science and technology policy, energy research policy and biotechnology policy. He was Head of the OECD/DSTI Biotechnology Unit. He joined the JPPPI in 2002 and worked on Jewish/Israeli relations with China; science and technology; and the history of Jewish civilization. Currently he reviews India-Israel-Jewish People links.
Three Reports written for JPPPI:
- China and the Jewish People – Old Civilizations in a New Era, Jerusalem 2004.
- “Science and Technology and the Jewish People”, JPPPI Annual Assessment 2005, Jerusalem 2005.
- Jewish Civilization at the Crossroads – Lessons from the History of Rise and Decline, to appear in 2010.
Three Research Papers written outside JPPPI:
- “China and Israel”, Encyclopedia Judaica, Second Edition, ed. Fred Skolnik, Vol. 4, Farmington Hills, 2007.
- “The ‘Confucianisation’ of the Jewish Community of Kaifeng: Jewish and Non-Jewish Historical Perspectives”, The Jews in Asia – Comparative Perspectives, ed. Pan Guang, Center of Jewish Studies Shanghai, The Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, 2007.
- “Chinese Jews in European Thought”, Youtai – Presence and Perception of Jews and Judaism in China, ed. Peter Kupfer, FASK, Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz, ed. Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main, 2008.
Focus Areas and Research
Articles by Dr. Shalom Salomon Wald

Yael Gos
Bio
Yael Gos has dedicated most of her professional career to the Jewish Agency's Shlichut (emissary) unit. She founded the "ShinShinim" project in Jewish communities abroad and managed the selection and placement process for all youth movement, community, and campus emissaries. She was part of the Camp Ramah team in the U.S. and served as Director of Ramah California. Gos holds a bachelor's degree in Psychology and Criminology from Bar-Ilan University. She is married, a mother of five and a grandmother, and resides in Jerusalem.

Barry Geltman
Fellow
Bio
Barry Geltman is JPPI’s longtime English language editor. He joined the Institute in 2008 as part of the steering committee of the inaugural Facing Tomorrow Conference, a cornerstone of the presidency of Shimon Peres. He divides his professional time between JPPI and the URJ Heller High School in Israel, where he teaches an American literature seminar and works to strengthen the emotional attachment of Reform youth to Israel. Geltman worked as an independent producer in television and film before making Aliyah in 2003. He is a Yale alumnus and lives in Jerusalem.

Dr. Sara Yael Hirschhorn
Bio
Dr. Sara Yael Hirschhorn is currently Visiting Professor at the Ruderman Program in American Jewish Studies and Senior Researcher at the Comper Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Antisemitism and Racism at the University of Haifa. She is also a '22-'24 inaugural fellow at the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) Center for Antisemitism Research and a fellow at the Jewish People Policy Institute. She was previously appointed as the Visiting Assistant Professor in Israel Studies at Northwestern University (2018-2022) and the University Research Lecturer in Israel Studies at the University of Oxford (2013-2018). Her research, teaching, and public engagement activities focus on Diaspora-Israel relations, the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, and the Israeli Ultranationalist Movement. Her first book, City on a Hilltop: American Jews and the Israeli Settler Movement (Harvard, 2017), was the winner of the 2018 Sami Rohr Prize in Jewish Literature Choice Award and a finalist for the 2017 National Jewish Book Award. She is currently working on a new manuscript entitled "New Day in Babylon and Jerusalem: Zionism, Jewish Power, and Identity Politics Since 1967," that will offer a transnational history of the post-Six Day War period. Apart from her academic work, Dr. Hirschhorn is an internationally-recognized public speaker, writer, educator, media commentator, and consultant on contemporary Jewish/Israel affairs.
Focus Areas and Research
Articles by Dr. Sara Yael Hirschhorn

Udit Corinaldi-Sirkis
Bio
Served until recently as the Legal Adviser to the President of the State of Israel, and Director of the Legal Office, Pardons Department, and the Department of Public Inquiries and Community Relations at the President's Residence. In this position, she attended the negotiations on the judicial reform, which were conducted last year under the auspices of President Herzog. Prior to this, she worked as a senior attorney for the High Court of Justice, and before that as a prosecutor in the Jerusalem District. She was a lecturer in the Faculty of Law at the Hebrew University. Corinaldi-Sirkis holds a bachelor's degree in law, and master's degrees in law and in criminology (cum laude), and is a graduate of the Mandel School for Social and Educational Leadership. She is involved in dialogue processes between identity groups in Israeli society held in the framework of the President's Residence, as well as in the civil society sector.
Focus Areas and Research

Amit Shoval
Bio
Amit holds a BA in Economics and Amirim Honors program in the Humanities at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Engaged in economic research and large-scale data analysis within the research department of the JGive. A unit 8200 alumnus with a broad background in Middle East affairs. Under the guidance of Prof. Yonatan Givati, responsible for estimating the Israel-Diaspora Index using quantitative methods and relying on economic theory.
Focus Areas and Research

Jude (Yehuda) Taragin
Bio
Jude is involved in several research projects at the Institute, while pursuing an LLM at the Van Leer Institute's MOSA program, alongside working as a foreign news analyst at "Maariv" newspaper. He previously combined graduate studies in Neuroscience at Tel Aviv University whilst a legal internship at S. Horowitz & Co, later becoming a lawyer as well. He holds a BA in History, Jewish Studies and Education from Herzog College, as well as an LLB and was part of the "Amirim" honors program at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
During his studies, he worked at the Ministry of Justice and a private law firm, and served as a teaching and research assistant at the Hebrew University, Tel Aviv University, and the Israel Democracy Institute.
He also interned at the Yad Hanadiv Foundation and the OECD in Paris, while studying at Sciences Po University.

Lipaz Rotkovsky
Bio
Lipaz Rotkovsky works in the consulting and legislation department at the Ministry of Justice, and is a teaching assistant in the Faculty of Law at Tel Aviv University. Lipaz has a bachelor's degree in law and a master's degree (with honors) in law with a specialization in commercial-civil law. She is the coordinator of JPPI’s online course "Israeli Identity – Divided We Stand."

Elijah Kochin
Bio
Elijah Kochin received his Bachelor's degree in law (LLB) from the Hebrew University in 2017. Elijah served in several roles in the IDF International Law Department as a legal advisor until his discharge in 2023. Elijah is currently living in New York with his wife.

Shlomi Bereznik
Bio
Shlomi Bereznik was a soldier from unit 8200 where he served as a Data Scientist. Shlomi is a graduate of a bachelor's degree in data and information engineering at the Technion (data science). During his degree, he won second place in the "Developments at the Technion" competition for his work "Dealing with incitement terrorism on the Internet and its consequences", which dealt with a proposal for a way to deal with thwarting the individual threat.
Shlomi is interested in artificial intelligence, Judaism, the heritage of the people of Israel and the nature of the Land of Israel.
Articles by Shlomi Bereznik

Eli Kannai
Bio
Eli Kannai holds a B.Sc. in Computer Sciences from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, with a focus on Mathematics and Jewish Philosophy. He served as Director of The Snunit Center for Web-Based Learning, a leading e-learning and information architecture organization in Israel. From 2000 to 2002, Eli worked with a private Israeli startup in the field of Knowledge Management. From 2002 to 2019, he held the position of Chief Educational Technology Officer at The AVI CHAI Foundation, operating in Israel, North America, and the FSU. There, he played a pivotal role in the development of large content websites, led online and blended learning initiatives, and contributed to various technology-related projects. Currently, Eli works as an independent consultant specializing in digital strategy and educational technology.
Articles by Eli Kannai

Yosef Keshet
Bio
Yosef Graduated with a bachelor's degree in mathematics and computer relations and a master's degree in information systems and finance from Tel Aviv University
Yosef is a data scientist, data analyst,
His position at the institute is collecting and concentrating information from various sources, making it accessible to the institute's researchers and analyzing it with advanced AI methods